Perhaps you are better than the alternatives.
More
value for the money. Exactly what they need.

Maybe you are convenient, easy, friendly - a
standout
for those "free" intangibles that come with
doing
business.

Or perhaps you are someone's habit. The phone
number on the notepad. You once had an edge -
the
best location, a great brand - but now you're
not sure.
Inertia and familiarity could be your
greatest assets.

Of course, you could be just lucky. It
happens. You've
built it, they come.

Whether you hold a position of strength,
habit, or luck,
don't leave your future to chance. The world
is not
standing still. Customers move on. Competition
moves in. Take time out to understand your
customer,
your competitive edge, and the changes
affecting your
business. Develop a strategy that translates
your
strengths into a winning business proposition
for the
future.

Not sure where you stand, where to start,
or how to
win? Contact us today at 413-527-3737.

People Thoughts - Fixing Bad Attitudes

A client complained that one of his employees
was not
stepping up and taking responsibility. As a
manager,
why wasn't she willing to take more
ownership? Why
couldn't she just make more decisions on her
own?
He was frustrated and, though it was outside the
scope of our project, asked my opinion.

I asked the employee to make a list of her
responsibilities. She quickly generated a
lengthy,
well-organized list and guess what? Nothing
on her
list indicated that she understood her
responsibilities
to include those her boss thought she was
reluctant to
assume.

To perform any job well, a person must have:

Clear expectations

Relevant knowledge

Suitable skills, and

Willingness

No matter how incredible the employee, success
requires all four. Furthermore, any gaps must
be filled
in this order. No way can you "fix" the
attitude, which
we often assume is the problem, if the first
three are
missing.

When confronted with an employee problem, always
start with #1 and work your way down the
list. If you
ask sincere, open-ended questions to uncover
gaps
in the first three, you will be amazed at how
rarely you
get to #4. Attitude is more likely to be a
symptom than
a cause.

In the case of my client, the employee
clearly did not
understand the expectations. The solution was
pretty
simple, and the results, miraculous!

More Thoughts - Give Your Homing Pigeon a Home

Imagine a homing pigeon without a home. It
would fly
aimlessly and starve to death. But with a
home, the
pigeon can start from anywhere and choose among
many routes to return to the roost. People
tend to
operate like homeless homing pigeons. The
evidence is everywhere.

We encourage sharing of Clear Thoughts in
whole or
in part with attribution, copyright and
website address,
www.uncommonclarity.com, included.

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Introductory Thoughts

During a recent speech, I asked the audience
if they
could explain their company strategy briefly and
specifically. Once the squirming and ducking
subsided, we considered the number of hours and
dollars controlled by all managers and their
sense of
priorities:

What to do

What not to do

How well to do it

The number was huge. Since operational
excellence
is not a strategy in itself, their concern
was palpable. If
managers can't explain company strategy, how can
their myriad decisions support it?

Uncommon Clarity helps organizations improve the
strategies and systems that make people
productive,
processes reliable, and customers happy.